No Money for Music: September 9 - 15, 2012

Every week I have been checking iTunes to find out whatever free content they put up each week. I have amassed over 5 GB of music just for clicking a promotional download link. Google Play also does this, so I now have even more music to listen to at my leisure. Here’s a short list of what was free this week.

Google Play Free Songs of the Day

Aqualung

Jethro Tull

As the FM-radio staple “Aqualung” demonstrates, Jethro Tull rocked and rocked hard: gnarled guitar riffs, Neanderthal groove, whiplash changes in tempo. They also loved getting pretty and flowery while Ian Anderson waxed philosophic on [the Lord], religion and the many existential woes unique to modern living. That kind of stuff sure can weigh heavily on the mind when you’re an anxious teenager thirsty for meaning. – Justin Farrar, Google Play

Google Play Free Song of the Day

Theme from New York, New York

Frank Sinatra

Back in NYC’s dark days, the crime- and debt-ridden metropolis was inspiring cinematic defeat-epics such as Taxi Driver, Dog Day Afternoon and The Warriors. The most famous headline of the period had a president symbolically telling the town to “drop dead.” Sinatra to the rescue with “New York, New York” which filled the then-troubled city with pride and reminded the rest of the country that there was still no other place like it. – Nick Dedina, Google Play

I Won’t Wait (Feat. Conor Oberst)Jesse Harris

Although Jesse Harris’ career-making collaboration was with Norah Jones (he wrote songs on her debut album), the New York songwriter’s understated solo work has yielded a dozen sophisticated records. This slightly sinister track features twisting accordion lines, a galloping rhythm and backing vocals provided by another of Harris’ longstanding musical collaborators, Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst. – Nate Cavalieri, Google Play

Cherokee

Cat Power

A hawk cries out on the second chorus of Cat Power’s “Cherokee,” just in case the song’s subject, its dry-echoing guitars, the synth flute on its bridge or Chan Marshall’s sultry voice didn’t clue you in to the mystic desert vibes happening here. The track’s hypnotically layered backing vocals and thick-kicking breakbeat lead alluringly into the previously uncharted electronic territories of new album Sun. – Eric Grandy, Google Play

Rebel Yell

Billy Idol

For those teens growing up in the ’burbs in the ’80s, Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell” was a gloriously vile thrasher that pierced the boredom of day-to-day living. Airing, like, all the time on MTV, the original video was the perfect delivery system for such an audacious jam. Violent fist pumps, spikes and leather…Billy Idol and his backing band resembled hell-raising marauders prepared to bring Lord Humungus’ post-apocalyptic mayhem to a neighborhood nearest you. – Jusin Farrar, Google Play

iTunes Single of the Week

My Dear

Ruby and the Soulphonics

The Soulphonics got their start in Florida back in 2006 as the Elements before moving to Atlanta and changing their name two years later. Singing with trumpet, tenor and baritone saxophones, and Hammond B3-keyboards/electric guitar/bass/drums rhythm section, lead vocalist Ruby Velle imbues her band’s fresh neo-soul songs with deeply felt pathos and an easy authority. “My Dear” is taken from the group’s debut album, It’s About Time, and addresses classic themes of hunger, homelessness, and charitable love against a snaky groove, sharp horn accents, and persistent piano accompaniment.

Starbucks Pick of the Week

If Only

Dave Matthews Band

Also on Google Play

Earache: Twenty Five Years

Various Artists

In Nottingham, UK in 1987, Digby Pearson put out the first vinyl offering on his newly minted imprint Earache Records. From The Accused’s The Return of Martha Splatterhead to the first proper signing of his good friends, grind godfathers Napalm Death, who released their legendary first record Scum that same year, the label was officially born. Earache went on to breed grindcore heroes Carcass, Swedish melodic death metal pioneers At the Gates, stoner metal beacons Sleep, experimental cyborgs Godflesh, new wave of Thrash titans Municipal Waste and so much more. To commemorate their quarter-century of excellence thus far, don’t miss out on this killer compilation – including choice cuts from all of the aforementioned plus Morbid Angel, Entombed, Deicide, The Haunted, Bolt Thrower, White Wizzard, Evile and beyond. Jen Guyre, Google Play